A long-awaited rank up. Enemies everywhere. The Trial of the Champion begins now.
Will is in the process of ranking up to silver. Alongside him, his elf companion Caiyeri has managed to sneak into the tournament via a Champion’s Pass.
They won’t be uncontested. Silver-rank elves are joining en masse, and they want him dead. That kaiju he just got rid of? Well, he’s going to have to deal with it now.
Strange forces look down upon the Trial of the Champion. Dread Executor Nynn, who sacrificed his power to accelerate the timetable of the tournament, has taken a particular interest in this tournament, and may even be joining himself.
Will is stronger than ever, but so are his enemies.
There’s only one way to victory.
Don't miss book 2 of this litRPG apocalypse series from bestselling author Aaron Shih!
This is second in a system apocalypse LitRPG series. Read in order.
So you know mostly what to expect having read the first. Will is teleported into a tournament and things immediately begin going wrong as outside influences jimmy up the place. Will gets to interact with actual non-psycho humans (and some fully-psycho ones) and start wielding his evil powers for good.
I really liked how Will's perspective begins to change in this book. He isn't so much looking out for his own survival here, as he is for the survival of the world he came from (humanity, yes, but also the others that have found themselves on the aggregated planet with them). In other words, killing his opponents would be very bad as it deprives humanity of its greatest powers. So he has to be both subtle and determined and work out relationships/alliances with people at a similar power level with himself. This was an outstanding aspect of the story and I loved it more than a little.
What grated on me a bit is the whole outsider invasion parts of the story. People are meddling, pretty much without consequence or check and that always outrages me. Will eventually overcomes, but with great cost. As is the common pattern for this story, really.
Personal issue aside, it's a solid five stars and I loved seeing Will rise to these new challenges and thrive for both his own benefit and for that of humanity as a whole.
A note about Chaste: It's a tournament arc. There's no down time for shenanigans, at least for Will's focus. So this is pretty chaste.
This book was worse for how much it takes from other, more popular series. As I said with the first book, there is nothing wrong with being inspired by other works, but something new has to be explored… this was just a repackaged He Who Fights With Monsters.
This series clearly got its inspiration from HWFWM. I don't like to compare series as each story is different, but this one used quite a few tropes in the same way.
The movie references were worse. It tried for humor but fell flat at best. The afflictions were one note. Stick something with corruption and it was a guaranteed win. I dislike this as it ruins all tension. Obviously the MC is going to live, but now every fight is one sided, making the fight scenes dull.
The villains had weak development. The tournament felt contrived. Not the results but that everyone had no issues breaking it. One rank higher than our MC shouldn't be breaking something that gods have to follow. It feels weird.
The one real shining remark is the author does a twist in how MC wins for the climax. I liked it. The interaction could have gone a lot of ways. Instead of a direct and boring resolution, we got something different.
That eked out one extra star, as I thought the series was just okay, 2 stars, but the occasional twists deserve recognition. They aren't mind blowing mind you, but they're unexpected in this genre.
This is the second book in a fantasy LitRPG series with system apocalypse set on Earth. This book is almost entirely focused on a tournament of champions. I like tournaments but I hated the way this one goes off the rails with lots of rules being broken with no apparent punishment from the system. As with the first books, I still think the progression system is lacking something and I dislike the heavy use of snark/sarcasm. There is one more book available at this time but I think it best that I stop here. I may try this series again sometime but right now I'm inclined to move on to something else.
Being honest....it was obvious with the first book, but the second has sealed it - the story is a "He Who Fights With Monsters" wannabe, but without the charm and depth of the main character. Here, we have lots of power, lots of underestimating of the hero, lots of levelling and quick progression...and lots of being an a** for no real reason. The book does show good humor at some points, but I can't get over the lack, when compared to the "He Who Fights With Monsters". I only compare it though, because the world, system and so on seem copy pasted (or near enough) from that series.
The story went multi universe and that is always difficult with power levels. The ending opens up so many, many questions.
The writing is still great and the pacing good. But the book centers on a tournament and it's weirdly done. Basically, our MC, Will, is already too powerful for it to be interesting and with the ending I'm not sure the next book will be that interesting.
I like all the nods to different tabletop game settings in the names of the skills.
There were a lot of things I didn't like about this book I like the story and characters but I prefer the mc to not only be op but win at least in the end and not make deals with evil kinda kills it for me ill read the next book but if it doesn't change for better I won't read further
Guy can’t catch a break, things go wrong with the tournament, the gods are screwing with him, and there’s now even more outside interference popping up! Oh and demons! What’s a guy to do? Get stronger and kick som butt of course as step one, step two? Get inventive!
Fun enough read, but this book takes way too much from He Who Fights With Monsters. The biggest difference is the speed of the story, but the MC in both are seen as having evil powers and the levelling/stats work kind of the same way. There is even the same concept of souls and the strength of them. I find that this series skirts dangerously close to plagiarism.
Gave this one a second chance. It's not terrible, it just doesn't stand up to all the other great litrpg that I've read lately. There are literally hundreds of these series popping up over the past few years due to the success of a few and this one simply doesn't bring anything new to the table and the characters are not interesting or unique enough to keep my interest.
It was good all the way through, the ending was great and at the same time a little confusing with the limited amount of dialogue with the characters and seemed to move over somethings that may have needed a little more seeding. But it was a stellar finale and can’t wait for more.!
Really enjoyed this second book, looking forward to more. The pacing seemed good but would like about of a settlement building to round it out more even if it was just a mobile base .
Shih has created worlds that keep me up reading late into the night. This second book is even better than the first. The characters and dialogue are rich and full of surprises. Well done!
Seeing many parallels to he who fights monsters with the storyline and writing style in this one, but it has its own unique story that is executed well and held my attention start to finish. Really enjoyed and and excited for the next to come out soon.
The story went off the rails in the second half of the book. Tournament made no sense and the Nathan character coming out of nowhere and the crappy humor was cringe inducing. I am dropping the book at 77% read. The MC was too strong and could break all the rules too and there are no consequences. Gods are impotent... I gave the first book 5 stars and this one may lead me to drop the author.
It starts off fast and never really stops. Bouncing around from one item to another without getting confused. Overall a really good story tools quite well
Will starts taking himself a bit too seriously and much of the fun is gone. Happens a lot with these kinds of books. And could everyone stop going on about HWFWFWFM (huhwaffuhwiffuhwaffum). It’s boring. Thanks!